CRIA News

CRIA's HIV Treatment Education Department has recently experienced several significant staffing changes which, despite the departure of a valued colleague, we believe will result in beneficial long-term stability and growth of services.

David Pieribone, who was the founding director of CRIA's Treatment Education Department, has left us to become Deputy Director of Education at AIDS Project Los Angeles. David's performance at CRIA was truly exceptional. He expanded the department from one to five persons, establishing a wide spectrum of valuable services in the process and substantially helped to create our agency's reputation as being among the most effective in the United States at reaching medically neglected populations. CRIA was very fortunate to have someone of David's unique abilities to not only speak about extremely complex healthcare issues in ways which were understandable and engaging for all PLWAs, but also to train his staff to do the same. We will miss David and extend our congratulations to the HIV-positive community in Southern California for recruiting someone with such great abilities to lead their education efforts.

However, at the same time, we too feel very fortunate to have hired an individual of national prominence as our new Treatment Education Director. James Learned, who joined our program on a temporary basis last December to operate our special HIV/hepatitis C treatment education initiative, has agreed to take over where David left off. He will ensure that our work to provide life saving medical information continues to meet the needs of every segment of the PLWA population both locally and nationwide. James has an unparalleled breadth of knowledge about HIV treatment and research
issues which are of interest to our constituents, as well as significant program management and hands on patient advocacy experience needed for his leadership role at CRIA. We are confident that James' energy and drive will allow our treatment education services to effectively speak about the ever changing healthcare environment for HIV and AIDS in the years to come.

CRIA Update, summaries of CRIA's monthly Community Forums held at St. Vincent's Hospital, detailed information about CRIA's treatment education services and a list of currently enrolling clinical trials, are all available on our web page.

CRIA would also like to welcome Jen Curry as our newest Treatment Educator. Jen comes to us from the Legal Aid Society where she connected disadvantaged individuals to a full continuum of care, including comprehensive health services. Jen has an extensive background in HIV education, service provision and community organizing. In the past, she coordinated Columbia University's anonymous HIV antibody testing service and designed programming for the Gay Health Advocacy Project. She has also been active in several Harm Reduction programs, peer Street Outreach Teams and citywide lesbian gay bisexual transgender youth activism. We are very excited to have someone of Jen's commitment and unique experience on staff.

Meredith Snow has been promoted to a newly created position of Publications Manager. Meredith joined CRIA last year as Treatment Education Assistant and has since taken on increasing responsibilities within the department. She became coordinator of CRIA Update in March, and she will now assume much of the responsibility to produce our major new Clinical Trials Directory project for the State of New York.

Last but not least, Eduardo Guzman, who was the second person hired to the department in late 1997, continues to provide a valuable element of stability for the many AIDS service organizations which partner in our treatment education initiative.

CRIA Receives HIV/HCV Contract Renewal

CRIA is very pleased to announce that the New York City Medical and Health Research Association HIV CARE Services has awarded us a major renewal contract to continue our vital work on educating people living with AIDS (PLWAs) about treatments for HIV/hepatitis C (HCV) co-infection. CRIA's $200,000 award will ensure our ability to speak about the relevant medical issues to over 2,800 such individuals who are most at risk of carrying both viruses during the next 12 months. Most importantly, this contract will allow CRIA to substantially broaden awareness within underserved communities throughout New York City that co-infection is an issue which must be immediately addressed both through new prevention and treatment efforts. We look forward to working with approximately 145 community based non-profits to conduct this critical initiative. Please call CRIA's Treatment Education Department to learn more about accessing services under our new city sponsored program.

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